Tales and Fantasies

r insects, it would have been remarked that they met after a different fashion from the day before. Dick took her in his arms, an

; you should have

!' sa

darl

among the trees, a pressure, a look, the grasp tightening round a single finger, these things stood them in lieu of thought and filled their hearts with joy. The path they w

ich man, and you would think, now that we love each other, we might marry when we pl

; with you and my father, I am so well off, and waiting is

ht to have told you this before; but it is a thought I shrink from; if it were possibl

she repeated,

t I cannot think I am to blame,' he s

end, 'how brave you are, and how proud. Yet I woul

o thrash the man, and then didn't. And why? Because my father had ma

nd then you did yourself injustice when you spoke just now. It was because the editor was weak and poor and excused himself, that you repented your first determination. Had he been a big red man, with whiskers, you would have beaten him-you know you would-if Mr. Naseby had be

ustices, through childhood and boyhood and manhood, until you despair of a hearing, until the thing rides you like a nightmare, until you almost hate th

et, I do not know him; it is you who know him; he is already more your father than mine.' And here she took his hand.

he best man I know in all this world; he is worth a hundred o

g to ask a favour, it's the first since you said you loved me. May I

asked

forget, I am roman

ly half an hour. At last the trotting of a horse sounded in the distance, the park gates opened with a clang, and then Mr. Naseby appeared, with stooping shoulders and a heavy, bilious countenance, languidly rising to the trot. Esther recognised him at once; she had

k exerted every art to please his father, to convince him of his respect and affection, to heal up this breach of kindness, and reunite two hearts. But alas! the Squire was sick and peevish; he had be